Optical disc recording system

ABSTRACT

An optical disc recording system includes a host apparatus configured to issue commands; and an optical disc recording apparatus configured to carry out a process corresponding to each of the commands, and to reply a response data to the command to the host apparatus. The host apparatus issues a record command as one of the commands to record a record data in an optical disc medium, and an optical disc recording apparatus records the record data in a data area in a predetermined format in response to the record command, wherein the optical disc comprises the data area and a first control data recording area. The optical disc recording apparatus additionally sets each of second control data recording areas in the data area in association with a command from the host apparatus as one of the commands, and a record status control data is recorded in the first or second control data recording area to indicate record status of the record data. At least a part of a second control data recording area associated data with at least one of the second control data recording areas is shared by the host apparatus and the optical disc recording apparatus.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/136,863, filed May 25, 2005, which claims priority to JapaneseApplication Serial Nos. 2004-154422, filed May 25, 2004, and2004-183350, filed Jun. 22, 2004, the entirety of which are incorporatedherein by reference.

This application relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/111,758,filed on Apr. 22, 2005, entitled “OPTICAL DISC MEDIUM, OPTICAL DISCAPPARATUS USING THE SAME, AND DATA RECORDING METHOD IN THE SAME”, whichclaims priority to Japanese Patent Application Serial No. 2004-129085,filed on Apr. 23, 2004, the entirety of which are incorporated herein byreference.

This application also relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/111,767, filed on Apr. 22, 2005, entitled “OPTICAL DISC MEDIUM,OPTICAL DISC APPARATUS USING THE SAME, AND DATA RECORDING METHOD ON THESAME”, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application Serial No.2004-129087, filed on Apr. 23, 2004, the entirety of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an optical disc medium, an optical discrecording apparatus, and a control method of the same, and especiallyrelates to a write once type optical disc medium, an optical discrecording apparatus to record and reproduce data in the optical discmedium and a control method of the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

A first conventional example of a write once optical disc medium and asecond conventional example of a conventional optical disc apparatus aredisclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P2000-504463A)and U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,281. According to the first conventionalexample, a writing apparatus writes a data block in a track pattern on awritable record medium. This writing apparatus has a writing unit and apositioning section. The writing unit writes a mark indicating the datablock in an area of the record carrier through the electromagneticradiation beam. The positioning section positions the writing unit onthe record carrier based on the track structure showing the trackpattern. The writing apparatus also has a status section to generate astatus data, which indicates that a write operation is carried out in atleast one area of the record carrier. This status data extends from astart position of the track pattern area for the data block to bewritten, and has an initial area data showing an initial area into whichdata is written without any interruption.

According to the second conventional example, an optical disc apparatususes an optical disc that has a zone border unused area and a bufferarea as an unused area, and a test area in each user band of a userarea. The optical disc apparatus includes a SCSI controller, a head, acontrol unit, a control parameter data edit unit, a random-accessmemory, a control parameter writing unit, and a control parameterreading unit. The SCSI controller is connected with a host apparatus andexchanges data with the host apparatus. The head writes or reads thedata into or from an optical disc. The control unit controls the writingand reading operations of the data and controls an entire operation ofthe optical disc apparatus. The control parameter data edit unit edits acontrol parameter data to have a predetermined format. The random-accessmemory stores the control parameter data edited by the control parameterdata edit unit. The control parameter writing unit writes the controlparameter data stored in the random-access memory in an unused area ofthe optical disc through the head, when the optical disc is pulled outfrom the optical disc apparatus. The control parameter reading unitreads the control parameter data written in the unused area of theoptical disc through the head, when the optical disc is inserted in theoptical disc apparatus.

As shown FIG. 3, an optical disc recording system includes a hostapparatus 1, an optical disc recording apparatus 2, and an optical discmedium 3. The host apparatus 1 is exemplified by a personal computer(PC). In built-in devices such as DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)recorders, the host apparatus 1 is equivalent to a dominant system tocontrol an entire system. The optical disc recording apparatus 2 recordsdata in the optical disc medium 3 such as the DVD-R medium under aninstruction from the host apparatus 1.

The specification for exchange of a command and a status between thehost apparatus 1 and the optical disc apparatus 2 is described in ANSIT10/1545-D: “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY-Multi-Media Commands-4 (MMC-4)” as athird conventional example. The host apparatus 1 exchanges the commandand status with the optical disc recording apparatus 2 by using a packetcommand shown in the third conventional example. In the presentinvention, the description is given by using the following MMC-4commands defined in the third conventional example.

(1) A Read (10) command is a command used to read a data from theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 for the specified number of sectorsfrom a certain logical address.

(2) A Write (10) command or the a Write (12) command is a command usedto read a data from the optical disc recording apparatus 2 for aspecified number of sectors from a certain logical address.

(3) A Synchronize Cache command is a command used to make the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 to data stored in a write buffer memory ofthe recording apparatus 2 into the optical disc medium 3.

(4) A Read Disc Information command is a command used to acquire thenumber of tracks or sessions of the optical disc medium 3, a flagindicating whether the optical disc medium 3 is erasable, and a recordstatus of the optical disc medium 3.

(5) A Read Track Information command is a command used to acquire astart logical address of a certain track or session of the optical discmedium 3, a next writable logical address, and status of tracks andsessions.

(6) A Reserve Track command is a command used to reserve a logicaladdress area containing a certain quantity of sectors as a track.

(7) A Close Track command is a command used to bury all the writablelogical address areas of a certain track with dummy data.

(8) A Read DVD Structure command and A Send DVD Structure command arecommands used to read and set data arranged in a system area, whichcannot be accessed through the Read (10) and the Write (10) command.

(9) A Request Sense command is a command issued for the host apparatusto acquire the status of the optical disc recording apparatus. Thiscommand is issued when the optical disc recording apparatus completes acommand, and when the optical disc recording apparatus transmits data tobe notified to the host apparatus when the status in the optical discrecording apparatus is changed.

As a large capacity of optical disc medium of the write once type, theDVD-R standard is known which is shown in ISO/IEC 20563“80 nm (1.23Gbytes per side) and 120 nm (3.95 Gbytes per side)-recordable disc”,

FIG. 1 shows a physical data arrangement of the DVD-R medium. Theoptical disc medium 3 has a control data record area 130, a lead-in area131, a data area 138, and a lead-out area 139 in the order from theinner side. The control data record area 130 and the lead-in area 131are referred to as a system area, in which data to control the opticaldisc medium 3 is recorded. Therefore, the system area is controlled sothat the host apparatus 1 cannot access directly. The control datarecord area 130 is an area where data for record management on arecording operation of data in the data area is recorded. The data forthe record management is referred to as a record status management data.The data area 138 is an area of the optical disc medium 3 where userdata is recorded. The lead-out area 139 indicates an end of the recordarea of the optical disc medium 3.

These areas are managed every sector of 2048 bytes to which a series ofnumbers (addresses) is given. Referring to FIG. 1 “h” is put on the endof the address so that the address of each area is described in ahexadecimal notation. The optical disc medium 3 is initialized by theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 prior to a data record operation.Through the initialization, the control data record area 130 and thelead-in area 131 are arranged in the area up to the physical address30000h, and the data area is arranged from the physical address 30000h.In order to prevent the host apparatus from accessing this area up tothe physical address 30000h, the physical address 30000h is defined as alogical address Oh normally. Also, the host apparatus 1 accesses theoptical disc medium 3 by using the logical address. Therefore, the hostapparatus 1 cannot access the system area arranged inside the data area138. However, the commands such as a Read Disc Information command, aRead DVD Structure command, and a Send DVD Structure command areprepared so that the host apparatus can use a part of these data. Suchthe command is provided in the ANSI MMC-4 standard described in thethird conventional example.

The logical addresses on the record of data in the write-once opticaldisc should be consecutive due to the constraint of a consecutiverecord. Therefore, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 manages thedata area by dividing the data area into small areas refereed to as alogical track. Then, the optical disc recording apparatus 2consecutively record the data in the logical track. Thus, the constraintof the consecutive record is met. In the DVD-R medium, it is ruled thatmaximum three logical tracks can be managed at a same time. The logicaltracks are respectively referred to as a first track, a second track,and an invisible track. The invisible track is a logical track on theoutermost side of the disc and an end area of the invisible track is notdetermined.

These logical tracks are areas obtained by separating a logical addressspace of the data area 138 in the optical disc medium 3 to which thehost apparatus 1 can access. Therefore, these logical tracks aredifferent from a physical track configured from a guide groove of theoptical disc medium 3 for an optical head and recorded pit strings. Inthe present invention, the record of the user data and the record statusmanagement data is managed by controlling the logical track. Therefore,the logical track is simply referred to as a track in the followingdescription. Moreover, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 cangenerate a plurality of logical volumes, as virtual disc spaces, on thewrite-once optical disc 3. Then, each of the logical volumes can bemanaged as a session.

A recording operation in the DVD-R medium with DVD-Video format will bedescribed below, as an example of using three logical tracks of theDVD-R medium.

First, a file configuration of the DVD-Video will be described. In theDVD-Video, a file system data, a video manager file group, a single orplural video title file groups are arranged in ascending order of thelogical address of the optical disc medium. The video manager file groupis configured of three files of a video manager data file, a videomanager object file and a video manager data backup file. The videomanager object file may be omitted. Each video title file group isconfigured of a video title data file, a video title object file, and avideo title data backup file.

Referring to FIG. 2, the ANSI MMC-4 commands exchanged between the hostapparatus 1 and the optical disc recording apparatus 2 and operationsstarted based on the commands will be described.

1. When an unused optical disc medium 3 is inserted into the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2, the optical disc recording apparatus 2determines a physical media type and initializes the optical disc medium3. Thus, a system area including a first control data record area and adata area are set in the optical disc medium 3, and necessary physicsand logical data are recorded in the system area.

2. The host apparatus 1 issues the Reserve Track command to reserve atrack where the file system and the video manager data file arerecorded. Receiving the Reserve Track command, the optical discrecording apparatus 2 reserves an area for the number of reservationsectors defined by an argument of the Reserve Track command as onetrack, and then updates the record status control data in the controldata record area of the optical disc medium 3.

3. Subsequently, the host apparatus 1 issues the Reserve Track commandto reserve the record area for the video title data file. The opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 reserves an area for the number of thesectors specified based on the Reserve Track command as a second track.Then, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 updates the record statuscontrol data and records it in the control data record area of theoptical disc medium 3.

4. The host apparatus 1 issues the Read Track Information command to theoptical disc recording apparatus 2. Receiving the Read Track Informationcommand, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 calculates a writablelogical address following a track number specified based on the command,and replies the host apparatus. The host apparatus 1 acquires arecordable address (Next Writable Address) of the invisible track as acommand reply value.

5. The host apparatus 1 outputs a video object file data of a firsttitle to the optical disc recording apparatus 2 by using the Write (10)command. Receiving the Write (10) command, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 records the data for the number of write sectors from arecord start logical address in the optical disc medium 3 based on thecommand. The optical disc recording apparatus 2 records the recordstatus control data in a RAM using a semiconductor memory, and therecord status control data is updated for every command.

6. The host apparatus 1 issues the Synchronize Cache command to theoptical disc recording apparatus 2, to end the recording operation ofthe first title. The optical disc recording apparatus 2 records anun-outputted record data remained in a write buffer memory therein tothe optical disc medium 3. The record status control data stored in theRAM in the above step 5 is updated, and the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 records the record status control data in the control datarecord area of the optical disc medium 3.

7. The host apparatus 1 outputs the video title data backup file data tothe optical disc recording apparatus 2 by using the Write (10) command.Receiving the Write (10) command, the optical disc recording apparatus 2records the data for the number of the write sectors from the recordstart logical address in the optical disc medium 3. Moreover, theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 stores the record status control datain the RAM.

8. The host apparatus 1 issues the Synchronize Cache command to theoptical disc recording apparatus 2. The optical disc recording apparatus2 records the un-outputted record data remained in the write buffermemory in the devices in the optical disc medium 3. The record statuscontrol data stored in the RAM in the mentioned step 7 is updated, andthe host apparatus 1 records the data in the control data record area ofthe optical disc medium 3.

9. The host apparatus 1 issues the Close Track command to the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2. The optical disc recording apparatus 2carries out an end process of the invisible track. In order to set thefollowing recordable area, the optical disc recording apparatus 2generates a new invisible track following the invisible track to whichthe end process is carried out. Moreover, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 updates the record status control data for the invisibletrack after the end process and the invisible track newly generated, andthen records the data in the control data record area of the opticaldisc medium 3.

10. The host apparatus 1 issues the Read Track Information command tothe optical disc recording apparatus 2. The optical disc recordingapparatus 2 calculates a writable logical address following the tracknumber specified based on an argument of the Read Track In formationcommand, and replies it to the host apparatus 1. The host apparatus 1acquires the writable address following the track reserved in the abovestep 3 as a command replay value.

11. The host apparatus 1 issues the Write (10) command and sends thevideo title data file data to the optical disc recording apparatus 2.Receiving the Write (10) command, the optical disc recording apparatus 2records the video title data file data for the number of the writesectors from the record start logical address in the optical disc medium3 in response to the command, and stores the record status control datain the RAM.

12. The host apparatus 1 issues the Synchronize Cache command to theoptical disc recording apparatus 2. The optical disc recording apparatus2 records the un-outputted record data remained in the buffer memory tothe optical disc medium 3. The optical disc recording apparatus 2updates the record status control data stored in the RAM in the abovestep 11, and records the record status control data in the control datarecord area of the optical disc medium 3.

13. In order to close the second track, the host apparatus 1 issues theClose Track command to the optical disc recording apparatus 2. Theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 carries out the end process of thesecond track, and updates the record status control data, and recordsthe record status control data in the control data record area in theoptical disc medium 3.

14. The host apparatus 1 issues the Read Track Information command tothe optical disc recording apparatus 2. The optical disc recordingapparatus 2 calculates a writable logical address following the tracknumber given based on an argument of the Read Track In formationcommand, and replies it to the host apparatus 1. The host apparatus 1acquires the writable address following the track reserved in the abovestep 2 as a command replay value.

15. The host apparatus 1 issues the Write (10) command to the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 in order to write a file system data and avideo manager file group. Receiving the Write (10) command, the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 records the data for the number of the writesectors from the record start logical address in the optical disc medium3 according to the command. The optical disc recording apparatus 2records the record status control data in the RAM.

16. The host apparatus 1 issues the Synchronize Cache command to theoptical disc recording apparatus. The optical disc recording apparatus 2records the un-outputted record data remained in the buffer memory tothe optical disc medium 3. The record status control data stored in theRAM in the above step 15 is updated, and the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 records the record status control data in the control datarecord area of the optical disc medium 3.

17. The host apparatus 1 issues the Close Track command to the opticaldisc recording apparatus in order to close the first track. The opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 carries out an end process of the firsttrack, and then, updates and records the record status control data inthe control data record area of the optical disc medium 3.

18. The host apparatus 1 issues the Close Track command to the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 in order to close the optical disc medium 3.The optical disc recording apparatus 2 carries out a disc close processthat is referred to as a finalizing process of the optical disc medium3. That is, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 adds the lead-in areaand the lead-out area to the optical disc medium 3 so that thewrite-once optical disc 3 can be treated equally to the DVD-ROM.

As mentioned above, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 updates therecord status control data for the record management of the optical discmedium 3 when a track is newly reserved by using the Reserve Trackcommand and the series of the recording processes are ended by using theSynchronize Cache and the Close Track command. In addition, when theWrite (10) command is issued plural times, the record status controldata of optical disc medium 3 is sometimes update in every predeterminednumber of issuance of the command or every predetermined number ofrecord sectors. In the example of FIG. 2, the record status control dataof the optical disc medium 3 is updated in the steps 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12,13, 16 and 17.

In this way, in the conventional optical disc media 3 such as the DVD-Rmedium, the control data record area 130 for the record management isarranged in the fixed size on the system area that the host apparatus 1cannot directly access. The record status control data is updated everyconstant data size when the host apparatus 1 issues the write commandconsecutively. Also, the record status control data is updated when thehost apparatus 1 issues the synchronize cache command to the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 or the track close command is ended.Therefore, if small size data are repeatedly recorded, the control datarecord area 130 is assumed in a short time. Therefore, when the controldata record area 130 for the record status control data has entirelyused although the data area 138 has a free area, an additional recordingoperation cannot be carried out to the optical disc medium 3.

Especially, the write-once optical disc using a blue laser has a storagecapacity several times or more times as large as the conventional DVD-Rmedium. Therefore, when the size of data to be recorded is the same asthe conventional size of data, there is a possibility that the recordstatus control data overflows from the control data record area in thesystem area.

In conjunction with the above description, a method of recordinginformation to a write once type information recording medium isdisclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei6-338139). In this conventional example, the information recordingmedium has an information record area to record information, a replaceinformation record area used when the record of the information isfailed and the information is re-written, and a management informationrecord area to record data for managing a rewrite history. When anunused area is below a predetermined quantity in a record area for apurpose, at least a part of an unused area of a record area for anotherpurpose is allocated as an extension area of the record area for theabove purpose.

Also, an optical disc medium is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open PatentApplication (JP-P2004-39186A). In this conventional example, a datarecord area is defined based on a predetermined standard. An extensionarea is further provided in an inner area from the data record area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical discrecording system that can additionally record data in an optical discmedium if a data area has an unused area, and a optical disc medium usedfor the same.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an optical discrecording system that can additionally record data in the optical discmedium even if there is no recordable area in the control data recordarea in the system area, and an optical disc medium used for the same.

In an aspect of the present invention, an optical disc recording systemincludes a host apparatus configured to issue commands; and an opticaldisc recording apparatus configured to carry out a process correspondingto each of the commands, and to reply a response data to the command tothe host apparatus. The host apparatus issues a record command as one ofthe commands to record a record data in an optical disc medium, and anoptical disc recording apparatus records the record data in a data areain a predetermined format in response to the record command, wherein theoptical disc comprises the data area and a first control data recordarea. The optical disc recording apparatus additionally sets each ofsecond control data record areas in the data area in association with acommand from the host apparatus as one of the commands, and a recordstatus control data is recorded in the first or second control datarecord area to indicate record status of the record data. At least apart of a second control data record area associated data with at leastone information related to said additional setting of a second controldata recording area is shared by the host apparatus and the optical discrecording apparatus.

Here, the information related to the additional setting preferablyincludes at least one of a number of the second control data recordareas and addresses of the second control data record areas.

Also, a check may be made to determine whether or not a second controldata record area is additionally set in the data area each time therecord status control data is recorded when a predetermined record timeelapses or when the record of the record data is once ended.

Also, when the size of an unused record area remaining in the firstcontrol data record area or the second control data record areas isequal to or less than a predetermined threshold, it is preferablydetermined that the second control data record area should beadditionally set in the data area. In this case, the threshold may beequal to or larger than 2*m, where m is a number of the tracksaccessible at a same time, to one of record units of the record data.Also, the optical disc recording apparatus may notify the host apparatusof a fact that it is determined that the second control data record areashould be additionally set in the data area.

Also, the optical disc recording apparatus may set a data indicatingthat the second control data record area is additionally added, in theresponse data to the command. In this case, preferably, the command isone of a Reserve Track command, a Write (10) command, a Write (12)command, a Synchronize Cache command and a Close Track command which aredefined in ANSI MMC-4.

Also, after an invisible track is closed and a termination positionthereof is determined, the second control data record area may beadditionally set subsequently to the closed invisible track. In thiscase, the optical disc recording apparatus may receive a close commandfrom the host apparatus to close the invisible track, may additionallyset a second control data record area when determining that an area forthe record status control data is insufficient to record subsequentdata, and may set a data indicating addition of the second control datarecord area, in the response data to the close command.

Also, the close command may have an extension permission flag toindicate that the host apparatus permits the optical disc recordingapparatus to additionally set the second control data record area in thedata area. The optical disc recording apparatus additionally sets thesecond control data record area only when the extension permission flagindicate a permission, and notifies addition of the second control datarecord area to the host apparatus.

Also, a secure command to secure a track in the data area may have acontrol data record area flag to specify whether or not the track shouldbe secured for the second control data record area. When determiningthat an area for the record status control data is insufficient torecord subsequent data, the host apparatus issues the secure command tothe optical disc recording apparatus subsequent to a close command toclose an invisible track. The optical disc recording apparatusadditionally secures the second control data record area in the dataarea in response to the secure command.

Also, the host apparatus may determine whether an area for the recordstatus control data is insufficient to record subsequent data, and issuea secure command to the optical disc recording apparatus to secure thesecond control data record area in the data area, subsequently to aclose commend to close an invisible track. The optical disc recordingapparatus additionally secures the second control data record area inthe data area in response to the secure command.

Also, the host apparatus may transmit an input/output command to inputor output the record status control data in the second control datarecord area to the optical disc recording apparatus. The optical discrecording apparatus sets a data in the response data to the input/outputcommand to indicate that it is not possible to carry out theinput/output of the record status control data in the second controldata record area.

Also, the host apparatus may issue a status acquire command to acquire astatus of the optical disc to the optical disc recording apparatus. Theoptical disc recording apparatus sets the second control data recordarea associated data in the response data to the status acquire command.In this case, the second control data record area associated data maycontain at least one of a flag to indicate that the second control datarecord area exists and a number of the areas which the record statuscontrol data is stored in the optical disc medium. Also, the number ofthe areas in which the record status control data are recorded in theoptical disc medium may be a number of the second control data recordareas. Also, the number of the areas in which the record status controldata are recorded in the optical disc medium may be a number of thefirst control data record areas and the second control data recordareas.

Also, management of a track as the second control data record area maybe different from management of a track for the record data. In thiscase, a field of the record status control data for managing the trackas the second control data record area may be different from that of therecord status control data for managing the track for the record data.

Also, management of a track as the second control data record area maybe same as management of a track for the record data. In this case, afield of the record status control data for managing the track as thesecond control data record area may be same as that of the record statuscontrol data for managing the track for the record data.

Also, the optical disc recording apparatus may notify the host apparatusof a number of tracks for recorded data other than a number of tracksused for the second control data record area. In this case, the hostapparatus may issue a status acquire command to acquire a status of theoptical disc medium. The optical disc recording apparatus sets a numberof the tracks for the recorded data other than a number of the tracksused for the second control data record area in the response data to thestatus acquire command.

Also, a number of tracks notified from the optical disc recordingapparatus to the host apparatus contain a number of the tracks used forthe second control data record area. In this case, the host apparatusissues a status acquire command to acquire a status of the optical discmedium. The optical disc recording apparatus sets a number of the tracksused for the second control data record area in the response data to thestatus acquire command.

Also, the host apparatus issues track data acquire command to acquire atrack data. The optical disc recording apparatus sets a data of whetheror not a specified track is in the second control data record area, inthe response data to the track data acquire command.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a physical data arrangement of a DVD-Rmedium;

FIG. 2 is a table showing the ANSI MMC-4 commands and operations startedbased on the commands;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an optical disc recording system ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the contents stored in a RAM 12 shownin FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of the optical disc mediumof the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional record status control data ofa DVD-R;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a managing method of a control data recordarea extended in the data area;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a track control data;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a method of simultaneously managing twocontrol data record areas provided in two data areas by providing anarea to store the first control data record area track number and anarea to store the second control data record area track number;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a method of managing the control datarecord area extended to a third data area;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the control data record area datacontaining the number of the control data record areas in the data area;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a managing method of the control datarecord area extended to the data area;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a managing method of the control datarecord area extended to the data area;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the control data record area datacontaining a control data record area number and a truck number of eachcontrol data record area;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an extension of the response data to theRead Disc Information command;

FIG. 16 is an extension of the response data to the Read TrackInformation command;

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a control data record area flag provided inthe bit 0 of the first byte of this command to instruct the trackreserved by a command to secure as the control data record area;

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a bit of extension of the control datarecord area provided in the bit 3 of the second byte of the conventionalcommand packet;

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a relation between a track in the opticaldisc recording apparatus and a track in the host apparatus;

FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing an operation of the CPU in a firstextension method of the control data record area to the data area;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an operation of the CPU in a secondextension method of the control data record area to be extended into thedata area;

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an operation of the CPU in a thirdextension method of the control data record area to the data area; and

FIG. 23 is a flowchart when the optical disc recording apparatusreceives a command of an input and output to the logical address of thecontrol data record area.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, an optical disc recording system of the present inventionwill be described with reference to attached drawings.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of the optical disc recording system of thepresent invention. The optical disc recording system includes a hostapparatus 1, an optical disc recording apparatus 2, and an optical discmedium 3. The host apparatus 1 is exemplified by a personal computer(PC). The host apparatus 1 is exemplified by an upper rank system tocontrol the whole system in case of a built-in apparatus such as a DVD(Digital Versatile Disc) recorder. The optical disc recording apparatus2 drives the optical disc medium 3, and records data in the optical discmedium 3 in accordance with an instruction or command from the hostapparatus 1.

The optical disc recording apparatus 2 includes a host controller 10, aCPU 11, a RAM 12, a motor controller 13, a motor 14, a read/write signalprocessing section 15, an A/D-D/A converting section 16, and an opticalhead 17.

The host controller 10 transmits and receives a command and data to andfrom the host apparatus 1. At this time, as physical interfaces for thetransmission and reception, the following interfaces are general: SCSI(Small Computer System Interface), IDE (Integral Device Electronics),USB (Universal Serial Bus), and IEEE 1394 standard interface. In case ofthe built-in system, an exclusive electrical I/F can be occasionallyused. When the host apparatus 1 is a personal computer, the commanddefinition is conformed to ANSI MMC-4 command set shown in the thirdconventional example. On the other hand, in the built-in system, thecommand definition often has a so-called vender unique command set thatis extended originally based on the MMC-4 command.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 controls the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 entirely, and uses the RAM (Random Access Memory) 12 as aprogram memory and a work memory. The CPU 11 is connected with the hostcontroller 10, the motor controller 13, and the read/write signalprocessing section 15 through a bus. The CPU 11 controls each of thesections and exchanges data with the host apparatus 1 through the hostcontroller 10.

The read/write signal processing section 15 carries out buffering,data/channel data modulation that is matched to various types of opticaldisc media, and addition and calculation of an error correction code.Also, the read/write signal processing section 15 exchanges data withthe A/D-D/A (Analog to Digital-Digital to Analog) converting section 16.

The optical head 17 record a signal from the A/D-D/A converting section16 in the optical disc medium 3, or outputs a signal read out from theoptical disc medium 3 to the A/D-D/A converting section 16.

The motor controller 13 controls a rotation of the optical disc medium3. In case of a CLV (Const ant Linear Velocity), the motor controller 13controls the rotation number of the motor 14 based on the position ofthe optical head 17 in the redial direction so that the linear velocitybecomes constant.

As shown in FIG. 4, the RAM 12 is divided into a record status controldata memory 121, a write buffer memory 122, a read buffer memory 123, aprogram execution memory 124, a temporary record status control datamemory 125, and a work memory 126. Also, the RAM 12 is used as atemporary data storage of data necessary for the optical disc recordingapparatus 2.

The CPU 11 stores a record status control data of data that is recordedin the optical disc medium 3 in the record status control data memory121. In case of the recording operation to the optical disc medium of awrite once type, the CPU 11 stores the record status control data of therecorded data in the record status control data memory 121 of the RAM12. When the recording operation of data is ended, the CPU 11 recordsthe stored data in the record status control data memory 121 in thecontrol data record area of the optical disc medium 3, to update a usestatus of the optical disc medium 3. The latest record status controldata recorded in the optical disc medium 3 indicates all records of theoptical disc medium 3. A Write command exemplifies the record command ofthe record status control data. A Synchronize Cache command and a CloseTrack command exemplify the data record termination command. In theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 of the present invention, a variableset is provided in the record status control data memory 121 to managethe management data record area set in the data area.

The write buffer memory 122 is a memory to temporarily store the data torecord in the optical disc medium 3. In the optical disc recordingapparatus 2, an area of approximately 1 Mbytes in the RAM 12 is assignedto the write buffer memory 122. When the host apparatus 1 instructs thedata record to the optical disc recording apparatus 2 by using the Write(10) command, the CPU 11 stores the record data in the write buffermemory 122 and outputs the record data to the optical disc medium 3through the section 15, A/D-D/A converting section 16, and the opticalhead 17 in units of data sizes. Such a recording method is general inthe optical disc recording apparatus 2. Therefore, even if the hostapparatus 1 has ended the recording process, there is a case that therecord data remains in the write buffer memory 122 without beingrecorded in the optical disc medium 3. For this reason, when havingended the recording process, the host apparatus 1 issues the SynchronizeCache command to the CPU 11 through the host controller 10 such that therecord data remained in the write buffer memory 122 is recorded in theoptical disc medium 3 and the write buffer memory 122 becomes empty.

The read buffer memory 123 is a memory to temporarily store the dataread out from the optical disc medium 3. An area of about 1 Mbytes inthe RAM 12 is assigned to the read buffer memory 123. When the hostapparatus 1 issues the Read command to the optical disc recordingapparatus 2, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 reads from theoptical disc medium 3 in the read buffer memory 123, read data for apreset number of sectors which is larger than the number of the sectorsinstructed based on the Read command. When the host apparatus 1 issuesthe Read command to read out the next data from the optical disc medium3, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 does not actually read thedata from the optical disc medium 3, but outputs the recorded data thathas been stored in the read buffer memory 123 to the host apparatus 1.Therefore, the command response time can be shortened.

The program execution memory 124 is a memory that stores a program tocontrol the CPU 11. The temporary record status control data memory 125is a memory to temporarily store the record status control data to berecorded in the optical disc medium 3 when the optical disc medium 3cannot record the data. The work memory 126 is a memory to storenecessary data for the CPU 11 to execute program and the like.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 5, an arrangement of data in the optical discmedium 3 will be described below. The optical disc medium 3 includes acontrol data record area 130, a lead-in area 131, a data area 138, and alead-out area 139 in this order from the inner circumference side of thedisc.

The control data record area 130 and the lead-in area 131 are referredto as the system area, in which the data to control or manage theoptical disc medium 3 are recorded. The control data record area 130 isan area where the record status control data for the record managementis recorded when a data is recorded in the data area 138.

The data area 138 is an area of optical disc medium 3 in which a userdata is recorded. The lead-out area 139 indicates the end of the recordarea of the optical disc medium 3.

These areas are managed in units of areas of 2048 bytes referred to assectors, to which a series of numbers (addresses) are allocated. Thesymbol “h” is put on the end of the address in FIG. 1 so that theaddresses of these areas are expressed in the hexadecimal notation.Through the initialization before the data recording process to theoptical disc recording apparatus 2, the control data record area 130 andthe lead-in area 131 are arranged in the area up to a physical address30000h, and the data area 138 is arranged in the area from the physicaladdress 30000h. The physical address 30000h is defined as a logicaladdress 0h. The host apparatus 1 accesses the optical disc medium 3 byusing the logical address. Therefore, the host apparatus 1 cannot accessthe system area that is in the inner circumference side of the data area138. However, the Read Disc Information command, a Read DVD Structurecommand, a Send DVD Structure command, and the like are prepared in ANSIMMC-4 standard described in the third conventional example, so that thehost apparatus 1 can use a part of those data.

The logical address of the record data must be consecutive because awrite-once optical disc has a constraint of the record to consecutiveareas. Therefore, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 manages thedata area 138 by dividing the data area 138 into small areas referred toas logical tracks. The optical disc recording apparatus 2 sequentiallyrecords data in the tracks. Thus, the constraint of the record to theconsecutive areas is met. It is supposed that in the optical disc medium3, maximum three logical tracks can be managed at a same time. The threetracks are referred to as a first track, a second track, and aninvisible track. Here, the invisible track is a logical track which isarranged in the outermost side of the disc, and does not have apredetermined end area.

The logical tracks are areas configured by dividing the logical addressspace of the data area 138 of the optical disc medium 3 to which thehost apparatus 1 can access. Since the length of the track depends onthe data to be recorded, the management of the logical track is carriedout based on sector addresses. In other words, the logical track isdifferent from a physical track that is configured from a guide grooveon the optical disc medium 3 for the optical head 17 and a recorded pitrow. In the present invention, the record of the user data and therecord status control data are managed by controlling the logical track.Therefore, the logical track is abbreviated to a “track” in thefollowing description. Moreover, the optical disc recording apparatus 2can produce a plurality of logical volumes as virtual disc spaces on thewrite-once optical disc 3, so that the optical disc recording apparatus2 can manage each of the logical volumes as a session.

FIG. 5 shows a configuration of the optical disc medium 3 of the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 5, the optical disc medium 3 includes thefirst control data record area 130, the lead-in area 131 which arearranged in the system area. The optical disc medium 3 further includesthe data area 138, in which a track (#1) 132, . . . , a track (#n−1)133, a track (#n) 134 and a tracks (#n+1) are arranged. The track (#1)132 to the track (#n−1) 133, and the track (#n+1) are tracks in whichthe user data are recorded. The track (#n) 134 is used as a control datarecord area.

The control data record area 134 set in the data area 13B is provided toextend the first control data record area 130. Therefore, the controldata record area 134 is necessary to have continuity with the data inthe first control data record area 130. For this reason, the controldata record area 134 has the following data management structure.

As shown in FIG. 6, the conventional record status control data of theDVD-R (in the third conventional example, table 18) is configured of oneECC block, namely, 16 sectors. Thus, one ECC block is used for everyrecording operation of the updated record status control data in theoptical disc medium 3. A zero sector among the 16 sectors is a link lossarea. Field numbers are assigned to first to fifteenth sectors in anascending order, and storage contents are defined previously.

The link loss area is an area for a gap between the areas and has nodata. This area is reserved for compatibility with a conventionaloptical disc medium 3.

As shown in a table 19 of the third conventional example, a Field 0 isan area where a common data is stored, which is commonly managed invarious types of optical disc media. As shown in a table 21 of the thirdconventional example, a field 1 is an area where a media power data isstored, which indicates recording conditions such as the intensity ofthe laser light and the like, in the recording operation in the opticaldisc medium 3. A field 2 is an area which a vender of the optical discrecording apparatus 2 can freely use. As shown in a table 22 of thethird conventional example, a field 3 is an area where a session data isstored. Fields 4 to 12 are areas where a track control data is storedsuch as a start address and an end record address of the generatedtrack. As shown in a table 23 of the third conventional example, thefield 4 is also an area to store a track data on the recordingoperation, and corresponds to a header section of the track controldata. As shown in a table 24 of the third conventional example, thefields 5 to 12 are areas to store the track control data that followsthe field 4. Fields 13 and 14 are reserved areas.

The track control data 25 stored in the Field 4 is configured from tracknumbers assigned to the first track, the second track, and the invisibletrack, a set of a start address and a record end address of eachgenerated track. The start address and the record end address of eachgenerated track are stored from 16-th bite of the field 4 incorrespondence to the track number. The track control data 26 isconfigured of a start address and a record end address of each trackfrom the track number following the track control data 25.

According to the present invention, the conventional record statuscontrol data configured as mentioned above is extended to provide anarea to store the record status control data in the data area 138. Here,five kinds of conventional extension methods of the record statuscontrol data are known.

Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, a managing method of the control data recordarea extended in the first data area will be described. As shown in FIG.7, in the managing method of the control data record area, a tracknumber, which indicates the control data record area extended in thedata area, is added to the track control data 25 that is stored in theField 4 of the record status control data. Then, the track number ischanged to a track control data 30.

As shown in FIG. 8, the track control data 30 includes an invisibletrack number, a first track number, a second track number, a controldata record area track number, a reserved area, and start and lastrecord addresses of each track. The invisible track number, the firsttrack number, and the second track number are track numbers of theinvisible track, the first track, and the second track, which are set tomanage simultaneously. The control data record area track number is atrack number of the track set as a control data record area extendedinto the data area 138. The start address and the last record address ofeach track are respectively a start address and last record address(sector address) of the logical track set in the data area 138 (sectoraddress). The addresses are stored in the order of the track number. Thetracks are sequentially set as the recording process advances, and thestart address and the last record address are recorded. The reservedarea is an area prepared previously for data extension.

A 2-byte area 31 2-from the sixth byte is an area to record the controldata record area track number arranged in the data area, although thisarea has been used as a reserved area in the conventional DVD-R medium.By providing the area 31, it becomes possible to arrange the controldata record area 134 in the data area 138 to store the record statuscontrol data in addition to the data tracks 132, 133, 135, . . . tostore the user data.

When the control data record area 134 is set in the data area 138, itstrack number n is stored in the 2-byte area from the sixth byte in thetrack control data 30. The track control data 30 or the track controldata 26 is retrieved based on the track number n. Thus, the stareaddress and last record address of the control data record area 134 canbe acquired.

As mentioned above, in the conventional DVD-R medium, when the controldata record area 130 generated in the system area at the initializationhas been entirely used, it is not possible to record the user data evenif the data area has a unused area. On the other hand, in the presentinvention, the control data record area 134 is extended to the data area138, and the record status control data is recorded in the extendedarea. As a result, it is possible to record the user data if the dataarea 138 has the unused area.

Moreover, the reserved area from the eighth byte shown in FIG. 8 may beused to record the track number of the control data record area. In thiscase, it is possible to manage a plurality of the control data recordareas. The extension up to maximum 5 areas is possible by using theentire reserved area.

A managing method of the control data record area extended to a seconddata area is described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 9. In the managingmethod, two control data record area track numbers are recorded in thetrack control data 30. In a first managing method of the control datarecord area extended to the data area, an area can store only one tracknumber indicating the control data record area 134 extended to the dataarea 138 and is set in the track control data 30. For this reason, it ispossible to indicate the control data record area 134 extended to thedata area 138, following the first control data record area 130.However, it is not possible to store data indicating the area to befurther extended. As a result, it is necessary to reserve a largecapacity of the control data record area 134 in the first managingmethod. In a second managing method, the record status control data isdistributed to a plurality of the control data record areas. Thus, thesize of each of the control data record areas can be made comparativelysmall.

In the managing method of the control data record area extended to thesecond data area, the track control data 30 stored in the field 4 shownin FIG. 7 has two track numbers to indicate the control data recordareas as shown in FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, by providing an area 38 to storethe first control data record area track number and an area 39 to storethe second control data record area track number, it becomes possible tosimultaneously manage the control data record areas 134 and 134′provided in two data areas.

The first control data record area track number stored in the area 38indicates the track number of the control data record area extended tothe data area 138. That is to say, the first control data record areatrack number is a track number of the first control data record areaextended to the data area 138 in the record status control data recordedin the first control data record area 130, and is a track number of thecontrol data record area 134 in the record status control data recordedin the control data record area 134 extended to the data area 138.

The second control data record area track number stored in the area 39is a track number of the control data record area next extended to thedata area 138. That is to say, when the second control data record areais not set, the second control data record area track number is notrecorded in the record status control data recorded in the first controldata record area. The second control data record area track number is atrack number of the control data record area 134′ to be next used, inthe record status control data recorded in the control data record area134 extended to the data area 138.

The control data record area 134 is not usually extended to the dataarea 138 immediately after the initialization of the optical disc medium3. Therefore, the track number stored in the areas 38 and 39 are not yetdetermined, and the record status control data is recorded in the firstcontrol data record area 130 sequentially. When the control data recordarea 134 is set in the data area 138 to extend the control data recordarea, the track number of the control data record area 134 is recordedin the control data record area 130 set in the area 38 for the recordstatus control data as the first control data record area track number.At this time, if the second control data record area is not yet set, thearea 39 is still unset.

When the recording process further progresses, the record status controldata is recorded in the control data record area 134. At this time, thetrack number of the control data record area 134 is set as the firstcontrol data record area track number. Also, the second control datarecord area track number is not set until the control data record area134′ to be next used is set. When the control data record area 134′ tobe next used is set, the second control data record area track number isset to the control data record area 134′.

When the areas 38 and 39 are set in this way, and the recording processfurther progresses, the record status control data is recorded in thecontrol data record area 134′. At this time, the track number of thecontrol data record area 134′ is set as the first control data recordarea track number. Also, the second control data record area tracknumber is not set until the control data record area to be next used isset.

By repeating the above operation, the control data record area 134 canbe extended to the data area 138 one after another. Thus, the extendedcontrol data record areas are configured to have a list structure.

In the description up to this, the extending method of the control datarecord area is described, in which the two track numbers of the extendedcontrol data record area are managed. However, it is possible to extendthe area by another method, in which a flag indicating the setting ofthe control data record area extended to the data area 138, and thetrack number of the area are managed.

Next, a method of managing the control data record area extended to athird data area will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Asshown in FIG. 10, in the method of managing the control data record areaextended to the third data area, a control data record area data area 40is provided in the field 14 besides the track control data areas 25 and26 in order to manage the data concerning the control data record areaextended to the data area 138. The difference from the conventionaltechnique is to provide the control data record area data region 40 inthe field 14. Moreover, the third managing method uses sector addressesfor the management although the control data record area is managed byusing the track number set in the data area 138 in the first and secondmanaging methods.

The control data record area data region 40 is an area where the dataconcerning the control data record area extended to data area 138 isrecorded. As shown in FIG. 11, the control data record area dataincludes the number of the control data record areas in the data area138, a start address, an end address and a last record address of eachcontrol data record area. A set of the start address, the end address,and the last record addresses of each control data record area can berecorded in the control data record area data region 40 up to 169 sets.It is possible to extend the control data record area provided in thedata area 138 up to 169 areas.

The data of the control data record area 134 is added each time thecontrol data record area 134 is provided in the data area 138. When thecontrol data record area 134 is newly added, the start address and theend address of the area are recorded, and the number of the extendedcontrol data record areas is updated and recorded. The last recordaddress of the control data record area 134 is updated and recorded eachtime the record status control data is recorded.

In this way, according to the third management method, the plurality ofthe control data record areas can be managed or controlled, and themanagement is carried out based on the address data of each control datarecord area. Therefore, it is unnecessary to convert the track numberinto the address, and simplification and speeding-up of the processingcan be achieved.

Here, the end address of the control data record area may be acquired bycalculating the start address of the control data record area and thestart address of each track recorded in the track control data 25 and26. Therefore, when the CPU 11 in the optical disc recording apparatus 2is operated in high-speed, the same effect can be achieved even if theend address of the control data record area is not recorded in thecontrol data record area data region 40.

Next, a fourth managing method of the control data record area extendedto the data area will be described with reference to FIG. 12. As shownin FIG. 12, the fourth managing method is a method to provide a trackcontrol data 30 in the field 4, and control data record area data 40 inthe field 14 for the management. As shown in FIG. 11, the control datarecord area data 40 stores an address of the control data record area134 extended to the data area 138. Also, as shown in FIG. 8 or 9, thetrack control data 30 stores the track number of the control data recordarea 134. Therefore, the control data record area 134 is managed basedon the address and the track number in the fourth managing method.

In the track control data 30, it is possible to refer to the tracknumber of the latest control data record area 134. In the control datarecord area data 40, it is possible to refer to the history of thecontrol data record area. Thus, it is possible to bifurcate the controldata record area data 40 and the track control data 30 according to thesituation to manage the control data record area 134. In other words, inthe fourth managing method of the control data record area extended tothe data area, each track recorded in the data area 138 can be managedsimultaneously based on the track control data 30, as well as theplurality of the control data record areas provided in the data area canbe managed by using the control data record area data 40.

Next, a fifth managing method of the control data record area extendedto the data area will be described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14.The difference between the fourth and the fifth methods is in that thedata to he stored in the field 14 is a control data record area data 60in the fifth method as shown in FIG. 13, while it is the control datarecord area data 40 in the fourth method.

As shown in FIG. 14, the control data record area data 60 includes acontrol data record area number and a truck number of each control datarecord area. The control data record area number indicates the number ofthe extended control data record areas contained in the data area 138.The track number of each control data record area is the track number ofeach extended control data record area contained in the data area 138.This track number corresponds to the track number stored in the trackcontrol data 30 or 26, and it is possible to refer to the address ofeach control data record area from the track number of each control datarecord area. The control data record area data 60 can store the tracknumbers up to 1016 of the extended control data record areas, and in thefifth managing method, the extended control data record areas up to 1016areas can be managed or controlled. Therefore, the fifth managing methodis effective when a lot of control data record areas are to be managed.

In the above description, the control data record area data 40 orcontrol data record area data 60 has been set in the field 14 of therecord status control data. However, the control data record areaextended to the data area can be managed if the control data record areadata exists in the record status control data. Therefore, a part of thesector whose content is standardized according to the standard of theoptical disc medium 3 such as the DVD-R may be changed and an additionalsector may be specified and arranged.

Also, the addresses set in the track control data 30, the control datarecord area data 40, and the control data record area data 60 areusually physical addresses. However, it may be logical addresses sincethe record data management area extended to the data area 138 is set inthe logical address space.

Next, control methods will be described, in both cases that the controldata record area is visible and invisible for the host apparatus 1 asthe logical track.

As mentioned above, it is possible to extend and set the control datarecord area 134 in the data area 138. However, since the record statuscontrol data recorded in the control data record area 134 isconventionally recorded in the system area, the data is closed andmanaged in the optical disc recording apparatus 2. Since the controldata record area 134 is in the data area 138, the record status controldata is treated in the same manner as a usual user data. Also, therecord status control data is impossible to be closed and managed in theoptical disc recording apparatus 2. Therefore, in order that the recordstatus control data is closed and managed in the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 in the access to the control data record area 134 from thehost apparatus 1, the conventional interface between the host apparatus1 and the optical disc recording apparatus 2 is modified.

First, how data concerning the track that is managed in the optical discrecording apparatus 2 is given to the host apparatus 1 will bedescribed. FIG. 19 shows a relation between the track under the controlby the optical disc recording apparatus 2 and the track in the light ofthe host apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 19, it is supposed that fourtracks of a track # 1, a track # 2, a track # 3 and a track # 4 are setin the data area 138 in the optical disc medium 3, the user data arerecorded in the track # 1, the track # 2 and the track # 4, and therecord status control data is recorded in the track # 3. That is, thetrack # 1, the track # 2 and the track # 4 are assigned as data tracks,and the rack # 3 is assigned as a control data record area. Therefore,the optical disc recording apparatus 2 manages the four tracks as thedata track #1, the data track #2, the control data record area # 1, andthe data track #3.

In the optical disc recording apparatus 2, when the request from thehost apparatus 1 is handled as one based on the track number in the sameway as the conventional technique, the control data record area # 1 isalso handled as a user data track. Thus, the data corresponding to thetrack #1, the track # 2, the track # 3 and the track # 4 are replied tothe host apparatus 1. Therefore, the data of the data track #1, the datatrack #2, and the control data record area #1 and data track # 3 aretransferred to the host apparatus 1. That is to say, the control datarecord area becomes visible as a track. For instance, when the hostapparatus 1 accesses the track # 3, it is necessary that the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 notifies the host apparatus 1 that the datatrack # 3 is different from a usual data track. This is to prevent anunnecessary read-write operation to the control data record area byhandling the track #3 as usual data track by the host apparatus 1. Thehost apparatus 1 also needs to recognize the existence of the controldata record area to manage the data area of the optical disc medium 2.

In the optical disc recording apparatus 2, when the request from thehost apparatus 1 is handled as one based on the track number concerningthe user data, that is, when the control data record area is handled asthe system area or one similar to the system area, the data concerningthe control data record area is not replied to the host apparatus 1.Therefore, only the data corresponding to the data track # 1 (the track# 1), the data track #2 (the track # 2), and the data track # 3 (Track #4) are replied to the host apparatus 1. As a result, the control datarecord area becomes an invisible as a track. For instance, if the hostapparatus 1 accesses the track # 3 when the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 does not show the control data record area in the data area138 as a data track, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 replies tothe host apparatus 1, the data corresponding to the track numbersreassigned after the control data record areas 134 assigned to the dataarea 138 is excluded based on the record status control data. Therefore,the data of the track # 4 is recognized as the data of the track # 3 bythe host apparatus 1. At this time, the host apparatus 1 needs not torecognize the control data record area in the data area 138 in order tomanage the data area of the optical disc medium 2. However, the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 needs to reply to the request from the hostapparatus 1 excluding the control data record area 134.

In this way, the managing method of the optical disc medium 3 in thehost apparatus 1 and the optical disc recording apparatus 2 is differentdepending on the handling of the control data record area 134 extendedto the user area 138. Therefore, a command and a response to the commandare extended. The commands relating to the extension of the control datarecord area are a Reserve Track command and Close Track command.

The Reserve Track command is a command used to reserve a logical addressarea for the number of the sectors specified by the host apparatus 1 asa track. A command packet of the conventional Reserve Track command isshown in Table 499 of the third conventional example. As shown in FIG.17, a control data record area flag 70 is provided in the bit 0 of thefirst byte of this command to instruct the track reserved by the commandto secure as the control data record area. The number of sector 72 to besecured for the track as the control data record area may be arranged inthe fifth to eighth bytes of the command. Also, a new command argumentmay be provided and arranged. The optical disc recording apparatus 2receives the Reserve Track command, and when the control data recordarea flag 70 is true, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 reserves anarea for the number of sectors 72 as the control data record areaadditionally.

The Close Track command is a command used to close, that is, to end therecord of the specified track. After the closing process, the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 newly sets an invisible track. Therefore, asshown in FIG. 18, a bit 80 of extension of the control data record areais provided in the bit 3 of the second byte of the conventional commandpacket to indicate whether or not it is permitted to set the controldata record area before the invisible track is newly set.

The host apparatus 1 uses a Request Sense command, Read Disc Informationcommand, a Read Track Information command and the like in order toacquire the status of the optical disc recording apparatus 2 and statusof the optical disc medium 3.

The Request Sense command is a command issued by the host apparatus 1 toacquire the status of the optical disc recording apparatus 2.Conventionally, this command has been issued if there is the data to benotified to the host apparatus 1 from the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 when the status of the optical disc recording apparatus 2changes, or when the optical disc recording apparatus 2 completes thegiven command. When the number of the remaining record control areas setin the system area or the data area becomes less than a threshold, theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 notifies the status to the hostapparatus 1. Receiving the status, the host apparatus 1 transmits theRequest Sense command to the optical disc recording apparatus 2. Thus,the issuance of commands is increased. The host apparatus 1 acquires anecessary data from the response to the Request Sense command.

When the host apparatus 1 can recognize the control data record areaextended to the data area as a data track, it is necessary todistinguish the track in which the user data is recorded, and the trackof the control data record area. For this reason, the Read DiscInformation command to acquire the status of the disc, and the ReadTrack Information command to acquire the state of the track are extendedas described below.

Referring to FIG. 15, an extension of the response data to the Read DiscInformation command will be described. The conventional response data tothe Read Disc Information command is shown in Table 368 of the thirdconventional example. As shown in FIG. 15, the control data record areaflag 70 and the number of times 71 of control data record area extensionin the data area are added to the response data.

The value of the bit 5 of the second byte of the command response datais used as the control data record area flag 70 that becomes “1” whenthe control data record area 134 exists in the data area 138. Also, the32nd byte of the command response data is used as an area 71 whichstores the number of times of the extension of the control data recordarea, and a data to indicate the number of the control data record areasexisting in the data area 138 is added to the command response data.These data may be provided in other unused areas described in Table 368of the third conventional example, and my be added after an Entries ofOPC Table arranged in the 34 to n bytes by changing the command responsedata length.

Referring to FIG. 16, the extension of the response data to the ReadTrack Information command will be described. A conventional responsedata to the Read Track Information command is shown in Table 463 of thethird conventional example. As shown in FIG. 16, the control data recordarea flag 70 is added to the response data. A data of bit 6 of the fifthbyte of the command response data is used as the control data recordarea flag 70 that becomes “1” when the track specified based on thecommand is the control data record area. After acquiring the responsedata to the Read Track Information command, the host apparatus 1recognizes that it is not necessary to carry out the reading/writingprocess because the track is the control data record area track if thecontrol data record area flag 70 is “1”.

It should be noted that the position of the flag of the control datarecord area may be arranged in an empty portion by changing a part of adata defined in Table 463 of the third conventional example is defined.Otherwise, the position may be arranged in a portion of data bytes newlyadded.

The extension method of the control data record area arranged in thedata area will be described in the optical disc recording system byusing the control data record area extended thus and the commands.

In the optical disc medium 3, the system area is arranged in an areaequal to or less than 30000h physical address, and the data area isarranged in an area equal to or more than 30000h physical address. Thecontrol data record area 130 and the lead-in area 131 are arranged inthe system area. The tracks 132, 133, 134, and 135 are arranged in thedata area 138 to record the user data. The track 134 of these tracks isset as the control data record area. It is when the host apparatus 1issues the Close Track command of the invisible track or when it issuesthe command to secure the control data record area that the extension ofthe control data record area is carried out by arranging the controldata record area 134 in this data area 138. That is, it is necessary toissue a command to secure the control data record area after the CloseTrack command of the invisible track is issued before a Write (10)command to record the data in the invisible track or the Reserve Trackcommand to record to reserve a logical track is issued This is becausethat the invisible track is a track in the outermost side of the disc,and the end address is determined depending on an amount of datarecorded until the track is closed.

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 20, a first method for the optical discrecording apparatus 2 to extend the control data record areaautonomously will be described. In a first operation, when the hostapparatus 1 issues the Close Track command of the invisible track, theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 extends the control data record area134 in the data area 138 irrespective of the command form the hostapparatus 1 if the amount of the remaining area of the control datarecord area to record the current record status control data is equal toor less than a threshold.

When the host apparatus 1 issues the Close Track command for theinvisible track 133 of a track number # (n−1), the optical discrecording apparatus 2 closes the track # (n−1) in response to thecommand. Then, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 records an updatedrecord status control data in the first control data record area 130. Incase that the amount of the remaining area of the first control datarecord area 130 is equal to or less than the threshold, the optical discrecording apparatus 2 reserves the control data record area 134 for thepredetermined number of sectors in the track #n. If the control datarecord area 134 is newly reserved in the data area 138, the optical discrecording apparatus 2 records a flag in the system area to indicate thatthe control data record area is extended to the data area. Also, theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 updates the number of the controldata record areas that exist in the data area 138, and the record statuscontrol data, and then records the updated record status control data inthe first control data record area 130 in the optical disc medium 3.

Next, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 generates a new invisibletrack 135 in the track # (n+1), and updates the record status controldata and then records the updated record status control data in thefirst control data record area 130 in the optical disc medium 3. Theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 notifies the host apparatus 1 thefact that the closing process of the track with the track number # (n−1)normally ends, and a status indicating the fact that the control datarecord area 134 has been newly extended, in response to the Close Trackcommand. Thus, the host apparatus 1 can not only detect that theresponse data to the Close Track command indicates a normal end, butalso detects the existence of the data other than the track managed byuser in the optical disc medium 3 from the reception of the status ofthe extended control data record area. Also, because the control datarecord area is extended in the optical disc recording apparatus 2without depending on the command from the host, the number of theremained sectors of the data area 138 in the optical disc medium 3 isnot coincident with the value held by the host apparatus 1. For thisreason, the host apparatus 1 issues the command to acquire the number ofempty sectors in the optical disc media 3, and confirms the number ofempty sectors in the optical disc media 3. In addition, when the hostapparatus 1 adds the data to the optical disc medium 3, the hostapparatus 1 uses the command to obtain the status of the disc or trackin order to acquire the number of tracks of the data in the optical discmedium 3 or state of the track. The host apparatus 1 determines a nextrecordable logical address based on the acquired data.

In above description, a case that the amount of the remaining area ofthe first control data record area 130 is equal to or less than thethreshold is described. However, it should be noted that the sameoperation can be accomplished even when the amount of the remaining areain the first control data record area 134 extended to the data area 138is equal to or less than the threshold, if the control data record areacan be further extended to the data area 138.

An operation of the CPU 11 in the first method to extend the controldata record area to the data area will be described with reference toFIG. 20. When the host apparatus 1 issues a command to the optical discapparatus 2, the CPU 11 analyzes the command to determine whether or notthe received command is the Close Track command (step S202). If thereceived command is not the Close Track command (step S202-NO), thecontrol is ended. If the received command is the Close Track command(step S202-YES), the Close Track process is carried out (step S203). Inthe Close Track process, an unused sector in the reserved area is buriedwith a dummy data. Then, the updated record status control data isrecorded in the control data record area 130 or the control data recordarea 134 in the optical disc medium 3.

Next, it is determined whether or not the closed track is an invisibletrack (step S 204). If the closed track is not an invisible track (stepS204-NO), the command response data is set and the control operation isended since it is not the end process of the invisible track.

On the other hand, if the closed track is an invisible track (stepS204-YES), the amount of the remaining area and the threshold of thecontrol data record area are compared (step S205). As the result of thecomparison, the control data record area 134 is set in the data area 138as a control data record area (step S206) when the amount of theremaining area is equal and less than the threshold (the step S205-NO).In the process of setting the control data record area, the control datarecord area 134 for the predetermined number of sectors is set for theended invisible track 133, and the start address and end address of thecontrol data record area 134 newly set are set and updated. Here, amethod is known in which the control data record area 134 newly set isused until the control data record areas other than the control datarecord area 134 newly set are filled with predetermined data, or theseareas are entirely used, as will be described later in detail.

Next, a new invisible track is set (step S207), and the command responsedata is set and the process of the command is ended. When the amount ofthe remaining area of the control data record area is larger than thethreshold (step S205-YES), the invisible track setting process iscarried out processed (step S207). Then, the command response data isset and the process of the command is ended.

In the invisible track setting process (step S207), the invisible trackfor data to be next written is newly set, and the record status controldata of the invisible track newly set is updated and the command processis ended.

In the first operation, the amount of the remaining area and thethreshold of the control data record area are compared with each other(step S205) and the control data record area setting process (step S206)is carried out. Therefore, the setting of the control data record areain the data area 138 is made possible, which cannot be carried out bythe conventional optical disc recording apparatus.

In this embodiment, the program to be carried out by the CPU 11 isdescribed as an example. The same operation can be achieved using by alogical circuit.

Next, two kinds of recording method will be described, when a newcontrol data record area is provided on the data area in case that theabove-mentioned optical disc recording apparatus 2 can manage aplurality of control data record areas at the same time.

In a first recording method, an unused area of the existing control datarecord area is filled with predetermined data before a new control datarecord area 134 is provided. Thus, since the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 is sufficient to manage one control data record area anytime, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 can quickly search thelatest record status control data as soon as the optical disc medium 3is inserted in the optical disc recording apparatus 2. Here, thepredetermined data is configured of the latest record status controldata or dummy data.

In a second recording method, even though the control data record area134 is newly set, the new control data record area 134 is not used untilthe unused area of the existing control data record area is completelyused out. The record status control data is recorded in the unused areaof the existing control data record area. In the second recordingmethod, because the latest recording status management data is searchedfrom a plurality of control data record areas when the optical discmedium 3 is inserted in the optical disc recording apparatus 2.Therefore, the second method is inferior in the search speed to thefirst method, but the control data record area can be efficiently used.

Here, the threshold of the amount of reminded area of the control datarecord area will be described. The threshold of the amount of remindedarea of the control data record area should have a value twice or morelarger than the number of tracks for data that can be opened at the sametime. There is a case that the commands such as the Reserve Trackcommand and the Close Track command are issued to the optical discrecording apparatus 2 even if the data recording operation is notcarried out. Therefore, the control data record area is necessary toupdate two record status control data. For instance, in theabove-mentioned operation shown in FIG. 2, the Reserve Track command,the Synchronize Cache command, and the Close Track command are issued tothe first track and the second track. Therefore, three record statuscontrol data are necessary for one track, and four record status controldata from the step 5 to the step 9 are necessary for an invisible track,and as the result of this, 10 (=3*2+4) record status control data arenecessary. Considering that the Synchronize Cache command are actuallyissued to one track a plurality of times, it is preferable to set thevalue of about five times of the tracks that opened at the same time.Therefore, it is preferable that the threshold of the remained number ofthe control data record areas is, for example 15 in the embodiment.

In addition, when the optical disc apparatus 2 frequently updates therecord status control data, it is effective to increase the thresholdmore than usual for the extension of the control data record area to thedata area earlier or to extend the control data record area to the dataarea even if the remaining area is larger than the threshold.

Moreover, the predetermined number of sectors in the extension of thecontrol data record area may be approximately same as the number ofsectors secured in the first control data record area 130. It ispossible to secure adaptive control data record areas from the number ofsectors used in the data areas 138, the number of the record statuscontrol data, and the number of empty sectors in the data areas. Forinstance, the predetermined number of sectors can be determined from thefollowing equation:

(the predetermined number of sectors)=(the number of empty sectors indata area)/(the number of used sectors)*(the number of record statuscontrol data).

The adaptive control data record area 134 is calculated and secured froman average record data size of the recorded data and a free area of thedata area 138. Thus, the effective record data management of the opticaldisc medium 3 can be carried out. Also, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 is generally recorded in every ECC block. Therefore, thenumber of sectors becomes a multiple of the number of sectors for theECC block. For instance, the value of 400 ECC blocks (6400 sectors) isset as the predetermined number of sections.

In addition, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 includes thetemporary record status control data memory 125 in the RAM 12 to store aplurality of the record status control data. For a case that theSynchronize Cache command is issued a plurality of times before thecontrol data record area 134 is extended to the data area 138, therecord status control data to be updated is stored in the temporaryrecord status control data memory 125. Thus, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 can normally operate even if the control data record area isin short until the invisible track is closed.

A second extension method of the control data record area by the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5and 21. In the second extension method, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 extends the control data record area only when the hostapparatus 1 permits.

When the host apparatus 1 issues the Close Track command for theinvisible track to which an control data record area extensionpermission flag is added, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 newlyextends the control data record area to the data area when the extensionpermission flag indicates “true” and the remaining area of the currentcontrol data record area, which stores the current record status controldata, becomes equal to or less than the threshold.

When the host apparatus 1 determines to be permitted to extend thecontrol data record area 134 to the data area 138, an extensionpermission flag 80 of the control data record area in the command is setto a true state in the issuance of the Close Track command for theinvisible track.

In FIG. 5, when the Close Track commands is issued for the (n−1) trackas the invisible track, the extension permission flag 80 is set to thetrue state. The optical disc recording apparatus 2 secures a new controldata record area 134 in the track #n, after the invisible track isclosed, when the argument of the Close Track command indicates theinvisible track as the object track, the extension permission flag 80 istrue, and the amount of the remaining area of the control data recordarea in the optical disc medium is equal to or less than the threshold.In this way, a newer invisible track # (n+1) is continuously provided.

Here, whether or not the extension permission flag 80 for the controldata record area should be set to the true state in the issuance of theClose Track command for the invisible track from the host apparatus 1 isdependent on whether or not in the processing sequence of the hostapparatus 1 for the permission. Therefore, the state of the optical discrecording apparatus 2 gives no affect on the determination. In otherwords, even if the control data record area of optical disc recordingapparatus 2 is less than the threshold, the extension of the controldata record area is not carried out when the permission flag 80 of thecontrol data record area is “false” or reset. The permission flag 80 ofthe control data record area is reset to indicate a prohibition when theaddress data managed by the host apparatus 1 should not be changedduring the recording operation to the optical disc medium 3. Forinstance, when the host apparatus 1 records a file management dataexisting in the optical disc medium 3, there is a case that an offsetaddress is changed due to the existence of the control data record areabetween the data tracks if the position to record is not indicated byusing a logical address but by an offset address from a certainreference address.

Moreover, when the control data record area of the optical disc medium 3is equal to or less than the threshold, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 notifies to the host apparatus 1, a status indicating thefact that the amount of the remained control data record area is equalto or less than the threshold as the response data to the Write (10)command and the Synchronize Cache command to the invisible track issuedfrom the host apparatus 1. In this way, the host apparatus 1 canappropriately set the extension permission flag of the control datarecord area of the invisible track.

The optical disc recording apparatus 2 notifies the host apparatus 1 ofthe status indicating the fact that the track close is ended normally,and the control data record area is newly extended as a response to thetrack close command. The host apparatus 1 receives not only the statusindicating the response data of the normal end of the track close butalso the status indicating the extension of the control data recordarea. Therefore, the host apparatus 1 can detect that the data otherthan the data in the track managed by the user exists in the opticaldisc medium 3. As a result, a proper processing can be accomplished incase of the data management of the host apparatus 1 by using the tracknumber.

In addition, when the host apparatus 1 adds data to the optical discmedium 3, the host apparatus 1 uses the command to acquire the discstatus and the command to acquire track status to acquire the number oftracks and track status in the optical disc medium 3. The host apparatus1 determines the logical address for the data to be recorded based onthe acquired statuses.

Next, an operation of the CPU 11 in the second extension method for thecontrol data record area to be extended into the data area will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 21. When the host apparatus 1 issuesthe command to the optical disc apparatus 2, the CPU 11 analyzes thecommand. Whether the received command is a Close Track command isdetermined (step S212). If the received command is not the Close Trackcommand (step S212-NO), the control operation is ended. If the receivedcommand is the Close Track command (step S212-YES), the Close Trackprocess is carried out (step S213). In the Close Track process, theprocess of filling an unused sector of the reserved area with the dummydata is carried out. The updated record status control data is recordedin the control data record area 130 or the control data record area 134in the optical disc medium 3.

Next, it is determined whether the closed track has been an invisibletrack (step S 214). If the closed track is not the invisible track (stepS214-NO), the command response data is set since the process to theinvisible track is not ended, and the processing is finished.

If the closed track is the invisible track (step S214-YES), theextension permission flag 80 of the control data record area is checked,which is set to the Close Track command (step S218). If the extensionpermission flag 80 of the control data record area indicates thepermission status (step S218-YES), the amount of the remaining area ofthe control data record area and the threshold are compared (step S215).As the result of the comparison, the control data record area 134 is setin the data area 138 as a control data record area (step S216) when theamount of the remaining area is equal and less than the threshold (thestep S215-NO). In the process of the control data record area, thecontrol data record area 134 of the predetermined number of sectors areset following the ended invisible track 133, and the start address andend address of the newly set control data record area 134 are set andupdated in the record status control data. Here, the control data recordareas other than the control data record area 134 newly set are filledwith predetermined data, or the control data record area newly set isnot used until the existing control data record area has completely usedout, as described later.

Next, a new invisible track is set (step S217), and the command responsedata is set and the process of the command is ended.

When the extension permission flag 80 of the control data record areaindicates non-permission (step S218-NO) or when the amount of theremaining area of the control data record area is larger than threshold(step S215-YES), the invisible track setting process is carried out(step S217), and the command response data is set to end the process.

In the invisible track setting process (step S217), the invisible trackfor data to be next recorded is newly set, the record status controldata of the invisible track newly set is updated and process is ended.

The difference from the operation of the CPU 11 in the above mentionedfirst operation is in that determination of a control data record areaextension flag (step S218) is added between the determination of theinvisible track (step S214) and the comparison of the remained number ofthe control data record areas and the threshold (step S215). Byproviding the determination of the control data record area extensionflag (step S208), the optical disc recording apparatus 2 can recognizewhen the host apparatus 1 should extend the control data record area.Therefore, this method is especially effective when the host apparatus 1controls the optical disc recording apparatus 2 in detail.

In this embodiment, the program to be carried out by the CPU 11 isdescribed as an example. However, the same operation can be accomplishedby using a logical circuit.

A third extension method of the control data record area by the opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5and 21. In the third extension method, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 extends the control data record area under a control of thehost apparatus 1.

The host apparatus 1 issues a command to reserve the control data recordarea on the data area following the Close Track command of the invisibletrack. Then, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 newly extends thecontrol data record area to the data area based on the request of thesize of the area from the host apparatus 1.

Moreover, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 notifies the hostapparatus 1 the fact that the amount of the current remaining area ofthe control data record area become equal to or less than the thresholdby using the status. Therefore, the host apparatus 1 can issue a commandto reserve the control data record area on the data area.

When the host apparatus 1 issues the Write (10) command and theSynchronize Cache command to the track # (n−1) as an invisible track,the optical disc recording apparatus 2 notifies the host apparatus 1 ofthe status indicating that the amount of the remaining area of thecontrol data record area is equal to or less than the threshold, as thecommand response data if the remaining area of the control data recordarea of the optical disc medium 3 is equal to or less than thethreshold. The host apparatus 1 checks the status of the commandresponse data, and ends the recording process, and issues the CloseTrack command of the track # (n−1).

Next, when the status notified from the optical disc recording apparatus2 indicates that the remaining area of the control data record area isequal to or less than the threshold, the host apparatus 1 sets thenumber of sectors to be secured for a control data record area in theargument, and issues the command to reserve the control data record areain the data area 138. The optical disc recording apparatus 2 sets thecontrol data record area in the track #n for the requested number ofsectors. Then, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 newly sets theinvisible track # (n−1). The optical disc recording apparatus 2 sets thenormal end in the command response data, and replies to the hostapparatus 1. The host apparatus 1 can recognize that the track number ofthe invisible track or the logical address for data to be nextrecordable to the invisible track are changed when the command forreserving or setting the control data record area 134 in the data area138 is ended normally. Therefore, the host apparatus 1 uses the ReadDisc Information command and the Read Track Information command, andacquires the number of tracks of data and the track status in theoptical disc medium 3, and then determines the logical address for datato be recorded in the invisible track.

When the control data record area flag 70 is set of the trackreservation command in spite that the remaining area of the control datarecord area is larger than the threshold, the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 may set an error as the command response data withoutsecuring the control data record area, or may secure the control datarecord area for the requested number of sectors from the host apparatus1 and may set the invisible track #(n+1).

As mentioned above, as the command to reserve the control data recordarea in the data area, the Reserve Track command is used. The opticaldisc recording apparatus 2 receives the Reserve Track command andreserves the track for the number of sectors 72 to be newly secured asthe control data record area.

Here, the number of sectors 72 to be secured as the control data recordarea is set in a multiple of ECC block since the recording operation iscarried out in every ECC block, and the control data record area usesone ECC for one update. Therefore, it is preferable to secure an areafor the number of ECC blocks which is larger than the threshold. Itshould be noted that when the unit of the record is a sector unit, theECC block can be replaced in the sector.

An operation of the CPU 11 in the third method to extend the controldata record area to the data area will be described with reference toFIG. 22. When the host apparatus 1 issues a command to the optical discapparatus 2, the CPU 11 analyzes the command to determine whether thereceived command is the Reserve Track command or not (step S220). If thereceived command is not the Reserve Track command (step S220-NO), thecontrol operation is ended. If the received command is the Reserve Trackcommand (step S220-YES), the control data record area flag 70 of theReserve Track command is determined (the step S221). If the control datarecord area flag 70 indicates the control data record area setting (stepS221-YES), the control data record area setting process to set a newcontrol data record area 134 in the data area 138 is carried out (stepS222), and the control operation is ended. If the control data recordarea flag 70 does not indicate the control data record area setting (thestep S 221-NO), it is determined whether the first track is unused (stepS223). If the first track is unused (step S223-YES), the reservingprocess of the first track is carried out. Since the first track isunused, in the first track reserving process, the number of sectorsspecified based on the Reserve Track command argument is reserved as thefirst track. Then, the record status control data is updated (stepS224). Thereafter, the control operation is ended.

If the first track is used (step S223-NO), it is determined whether thesecond track is unused (step S225). If the second track is unused (stepS 225-YES), the reserving process of the second track is carried out.Since the second track is unused, in the second track reserving process,the number of sectors specified based on the Reserve Track commandargument is reserved as the second track, and the record status controldata is updated (step S226). Thereafter, the control operation is ended.If the second track is also used (step S225-NO), an error process iscarried out. In the error process, the generated error status is set inthe command response data (step S227), and the control operation isended.

In the third extension method of the control data record area to thethird data area, by providing the determining process of the controldata record area flag 70 of Reserve Track command (step S221) and thecontrol data record area setting process in which the new control datarecord area 134 is set in data area 138 (step S222), the extension ofthe control data record area to the data area can be made possible,which can be never carried out in the conventional optical discrecording apparatus.

In this embodiment, the program to be carried out by the CPU 11 isdescribed as an example. The same operation can be achieved using by alogical circuit.

As mentioned above, when the control data record area is in short in theclosing process of the invisible track, the control data record area 134is newly set in the data area 138 following the invisible track. When aplurality of logical volumes that are referred to as sessions are set inthe optical disc medium 3, borders of the sessions are assigned as thesystem area. Therefore, the control data record area that has the samefunction as the first control data record area 130 can be arranged inthe session border.

When a plurality of sessions are provided in the write-once optical disc3, the data area is set in the session that addition record is possible.The control data record area of the present invention can be applied insuch the data area.

Also, when the host apparatus 1 tries to directly access the controldata record area managed by the optical disc recording apparatus 2, theoptical disc recording apparatus 2 returns or replies an error. That is,when the host apparatus 1 issues the Write (10) command or the Read (10)command to the logical address in the track assigned to the control datarecord area, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 returns the errorwithout the writing and reading operations. In this way, it is possibleto prevent the user from accessing the control data record area arrangedin the data area erroneously when the record status control data isarranged in the data area although the record status control data isonly in the system area conventionally. Especially, when a dataindicating that the logical address specifies the control data recordarea is notified to the host apparatus in the returning of the error,the host apparatus 1 can efficiently control the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 because it is no need to carry out a retry operation and thelike.

FIG. 23 shows a flowchart when the optical disc recording apparatus 2receives a command of an input and output to the logical address of thecontrol data record area. The difference from the conventional input andoutput operation is in that in the present invention, the determiningprocess of the control data record area (step S241) and a notifyingprocess of control data access limitation (step S244) are provided. Inthe control data record area determining process, it is determinedwhether the logical address for the input and output is the control datarecord area or not.

Receiving a command from the host apparatus 1, the optical discrecording apparatus 2 analyzes the command. It is determined whether thereceived command is the I/O command such as the Read command and theWrite command (step S240). If the received command is not the I/Ocommand (step S240-NO), the control operation is ended. If the receivedcommand is the I/O command (step S240-YES), it is determined whether thelogical address for the input and output is an address in the controldata record area (step S241). If the logical address is not the addressfor the input and output in the control data record area (the stepS241-NO), the optical disc recording apparatus 2 carries out a usual I/Ooperation because it is not the input and output to the control datarecord area. In the I/O operation, the user data is read out from theoptical disc medium 3 and the user data is recorded in the optical discmedium 3 (step S242). Thereafter, in an I/O status notifying process,the status in the end of the input and output is set to the commandresponse data to notify the host apparatus 1 (step S243), and then thecontrol operation is ended.

If the logical address for the input and output is in the control datarecord area (step S241-YES), the management area access limitationnotifying process is carried out since it is an input and output to thecontrol data record area. In the management area access restrictingprocess, the data indicating that the access address indicates thecontrol data record area is set in the command response data to notifythe host apparatus 1 (step S244), and the control operation is ended.

Hereinafter, the method will be described in which the host apparatus 1acquires the control data when the control data record area 134 existsin the data area 138 of the optical disc medium 3 by using theabove-mentioned Read Disc Information command and the Read TrackInformation command.

As shown in FIG. 15, the number of tracks in the entire disc areaincluding the control data record area, a flag data whether or not thecontrol data record area exists in the data area, and the number of thecontrol data record areas in the data area are set in the commandresponse data to the Read Disc Information command. Using these data,the host apparatus 1 can determine the total number of the tracks in theoptical disc medium 3, the existence of the tracks that cannot beoperated, and the numbers of the tracks that cannot be operated. Inorder to determine which track is of the control data record area, theRead Track Information command is issued for the total number of tracksin the optical disc medium 3 from the track number # 1 sequentially. Asshown in FIG. 16, the control data record area flag 70 is set to theresponse data to the Read Track Information command to indicate whetheror not the track is the control data record area.

If the n-th track is the control data record area, a flag data is set tothe response data to the Read Track Information command issued to then-th track to indicate that the track is the control data record area.The host apparatus 1 can recognize that the track is the control datarecord area, based on the flag data. Therefore, the host apparatus 1 canefficiently carry out the control of the optical disc recordingapparatus 2 because the host apparatus 1 does not carry out thereading/recording operation to the n-th track.

When the control data record area extended to the data area is concealedby the optical disc recording apparatus 2, so that the host apparatus 1cannot treat the control data record area extended to the data area as adata track, the host apparatus 1 can carry out the recording/readingcontrol in the same way as to the conventional optical disc recordingapparatus. Especially, when receiving the Close Track command of theinvisible track, the optical disc recording apparatus 2 determines thatthe remaining area of the control data record area to store the currentrecord status control data becomes equal to or less than the threshold.In this case, if the control data record area is extended to the dataarea without depending on the command from the host apparatus 1, thereis an excellent effect that it is not required to modify the controlprogram of the host apparatus 1 largely to control the optical discrecording apparatus 2, compared with the conventional program.

As described above, in the present invention, the control data recordarea is extended to the data area once or many times for the recordmanagement of the optical disc medium. Therefore, it is possible torecord data in the optical disc medium that a user data cannot be addedin spite of an unused area in the data area due to the constraint of thecontrol data record area. As a result, the user can effectively use theoptical disc medium.

1. A recording method in an optical disc medium, comprising: providingan optical disc medium having a data area in a recording area of saidoptical disc medium; recording a record state control data concerning arecording operation in a control data recording area of said recordingarea of said optical disc medium when a user data is recorded in saiddata area; wherein said control data recording area comprises a firstcontrol data recording area provided in a portion of said recording areaof said optical disc medium other than said data area, and secondcontrol data recording areas provided in said data area; andadditionally setting said second control data recording area for nextuse in said data area when a remaining record capacity of a current-useone of said second control data recording areas or said first controldata recording area becomes equal to or less than a predetermined recordcapacity, wherein said record state control data includes a data of saidadditionally set second control data recording area.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said additionally setting comprises:additionally setting said additionally set second control data recordingarea in a border area, when said border area is newly set for a sessionin said data area.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidadditionally set second control data recording area contains at leastone of a position data indicating a position of said additionally setsecond control data recording area, and a size data indicating acapacity of said additionally set second control data recording area. 4.The method according to claim 1, wherein said record state control datais allocated with a plurality of fields, said data area is allocatedwith a plurality of logic tracks, and said recording a record statecontrol data comprises: recording a start address indicating a startposition of each of said plurality of logical tracks, and an end addressindicating a last recorded position of said logical track in one fieldof said plurality of fields.
 5. The method according to claim 4, whereinsaid recording a record state control data comprises: recording a dataof one of said second control data recording areas corresponding toanother field as one of said plurality of fields other than said onefield in said another field.
 6. The method according to claim 4, whereinsaid recording a record state control data comprises: recording a dataof each of said second control data recording areas in said one field inaddition to said start address and said end address.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 4, wherein each of said second control data recordingareas is allocated with at least one of said plurality of logic tracks,and said second control data recording area data comprises a number ofsaid second control data recording areas, and said start address andsaid end address of the allocated logic track.
 8. The method accordingto claim 7, wherein said plurality of logic tracks are allocated withtrack numbers to indicate an order of said plurality of logic tracks,and said second control data recording area data comprises a number ofsaid second control data recording areas and said track number of saidlogic track allocated to said second control data recording areas. 9.The method according to claim 4, wherein each of said plurality offields is a sector.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidoptical disc medium comprises a preset record state control data replicaarea, said additionally setting comprises: recording the latest recorddata control data in said record state control data replica area, whensaid second control data recording area is set additionally, said latestrecord data control data contains said second control data recordingarea data.
 11. A data recording apparatus for an optical disc medium,comprising: an optical head configured to access an optical disc mediumrotated and having a data area in a recording area of said optical discmedium; and a control section configured to control said optical head torecord a user data in said data area and to record a record statecontrol data concerning a recording operation of said user data in acontrol data recording area of said recording area of said optical discmedium when said user data is recorded in said data area, wherein saidcontrol data recording area comprises a basic control data recordingarea provided in a portion of said recording area of said optical discmedium other than said data area, and second control data recordingareas provided in said data area, said control section controls saidoptical head to additionally set said second control data recording areafor next use in said data area when a remaining record capacity of acurrent-use one of said second control data recording areas or firstcontrol data recording area becomes equal to or less than apredetermined record capacity, and said record state control dataincludes a data of said additionally set second control data recordingarea.
 12. The data recording apparatus according to claim 11, whereinsaid control section controls said optical head to additionally set saidadditionally set second control data recording area in a border area,when said border area is newly set for a session in said data area. 13.The data recording apparatus according to claim 11, wherein saidadditionally set second control data recording area data contains atleast one of a position data indicating a position of said additionallyset second control data recording area, and a size data indicating acapacity of said additionally set second control data recording area.14. The data recording apparatus according to claim 11, wherein saidrecord state control data is allocated with a plurality of fields, saiddata area is allocated with a plurality of logical tracks, and saidcontrol section controls said optical head to record a start addressindicating a start position of each of said plurality of logical tracks,and an end address indicating a last recorded position of said logicaltrack in one field of said plurality of fields.
 15. The data recordingapparatus according to claim 14, wherein said control section controlssaid optical head to record a data of one of said second control datarecording areas corresponding to another field as one of said pluralityof fields other than said one field in said another field.
 16. The datarecording apparatus according to claim 41, wherein said control sectioncontrols said optical head to record a data of each of said secondcontrol data recording areas in said one field in addition to said startaddress and said end address.
 17. The data recording apparatus accordingto claim 41, wherein each of said second control data recording areas isallocated with at least one of said plurality of logic tracks, and saidsecond control data recording area data comprises a number of saidsecond control data recording areas, and said start address and said endaddress of the allocated logic track.
 18. The data recording apparatusaccording to claim 17, wherein said plurality of logic tracks areallocated with track numbers to indicate an order of said plurality oflogic tracks, and said second control data recording area data comprisesa number of said second control data recording areas and said tracknumber of said logic track allocated to said second control datarecording area.
 19. The data recording apparatus according to claim 14,wherein each of said plurality of fields is a sector.
 20. The datarecording apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said optical discmedium comprises a preset record state control data replica area, saidcontrol section controls said optical head to record the latest recorddata control data in said record state control data replica area, whensaid second control data recording area is set additionally, and saidlatest record data control data contains said second control datarecording area data.
 21. A computer-readable software product recordingfor achieving program code for a recording method in an optical discmedium, wherein said recording method comprises: providing an opticaldisc medium having a data area in a recording area of said optical discmedium; recording a record state control data concerning a recordingoperation in a control data recording area of said recording area ofsaid optical disc medium when a user data is recorded in said data area;wherein said control data recording area comprises a first control datarecording area provided in a portion of said recording area of saidoptical disc medium other than said data area, and said second controldata recording areas provided in said data area; and additionallysetting said second control data recording area for next use in saiddata area when a remaining record capacity of a current-use one of saidsecond control data recording areas or said first control data recordingarea becomes equal to or less than a predetermined record capacity,wherein said record state control data includes a data of saidadditionally set second control data recording area.